I have an angel pattern that I want to do for my a plaque that has a couple of places I would like to Island , I just cant get it to do it right.
I do a part as a pocket but when I tag the Island it just wants to cut that like another part… I run Simulation and it clears the whole area not leaving the island … any pointers? This would give you and idea of What I am trying
What CAM software are you using?
Make the islands “parts” first, then make the outside a “hole” and choose islamd on the hole.
When you click island, it does a pocket, except for where you have parts.
I’m assuming this is estlcam.
I have some steps (same as Heffe’s) on the Milling Basics page.
As jeffeb3 said, you need to define the “islands” as parts. This will outline the islands. Then, if you define the surrounding areas as “holes”, choosing the island format, you should get what you want.
I personally found this to be exactly backwards, but once you get it, it works with no problems. I’ve attached one way to do your image. The blue outlines were the areas that were defined as “parts” first.
I agree with Dave K… i found Estlcam’s way of doing islands completely backwards, but once I figured it out, it’s worked well.
Jeffb is right it is Estlcam Thanks for the help and the picture will help
I see Said the Blind man… Thank you for the assist I think I got it…
I got the unit used on thanksgiving weekend and have not had time to do any real cuts yet (70 to 80 hour work weeks between 2 jobs)
and a couple of scroll saw orders for my wood working so I have been a little frustrated about it, wondering if I wasted money. But Now I see light at the end of the tunnel , My only hope is that it is not a Union pacific freight train. 
Just wait’ll you come across artwork requiring multiple islands with holes in them etc. I believe it was a Zelda shield that schooled me on it all. Was quite tricky to wrap my head around but I got it eventually.
I’m attempting to follow the solution listed in this thread, but it is just not working. I’m using Estlcam 11.111. Here are the steps, along with screenshots below. Can anybody tell me why the pocket is not working?
That probably has to do with the thin wall. Probably not considered a island in the software if the path overlap? Do all other islands work for you? You can try a quick test, scale it up 20% and see if it works then, if it does not perhaps the paths are not closed.
Yep, it was too thin. That was the first island I tried, so I never would have figured it out since it seemed the feature just didn’t work and I was already investigating other software packages. Thanks for the quick and insightful response!
Still, that seems like a bug. I would report it to Christian.
As a workaround, You could also connect the thing so a regular pocket would work. If the hole path went around the outside, then across a little bridge, then around the inside, I think a pocket would work.
wow been trying to figure this out for months. Even read this quote 4 times before it stuck in my head how to do it. I is backwards from how I think it should work but works none the less.
Thank you sir!!
wow thanks for this helpful thread, I would never have figured out the ESTLCam UI without it
